Towards best farming practices in BC blueberries to ensure bee health and good pollination

Blueberries are Canada’s top fruit export valued at over $400 million annually. In British Columbia (BC), the province with the largest production of cultivated (highbush) blueberries, crop productivity is dependent on the pollination service of managed honey bees. Bee pollination provides growers with greater fruit set, and produces larger and better quality berries. Blueberry pollination provides beekeepers with the first pollination income of the season and therefore both growers and beekeepers benefit from honey bee pollination.

Twenty thousand acres of mature blueberries are now grown in BC, requiring a minimum of 40,000 colonies for pollination each spring, and demand is increasing each year as more immature plants come into production. However, in recent years some beekeepers have become reluctant to engage in pollinating blueberries after observing poor health in their colonies, with a suspected increase in the incidence of European foulbrood (EFB)-like disease, following blueberry pollination.

In 2018, we initiated a project to study honey bee health during and after blueberry pollination. We conducted a field experiment with five commercial co-operator beekeepers engaging in highbush blueberry pollination. We compared pollinating and non-pollinating colonies and evaluated the effect of protein supplementation on several aspects of colony health, including adult population, brood area, and presence of diseases, noting an increase in EFB disease associated with blueberry pollination. We will discuss our findings and potential
management strategies to increase pollinator health and pollination efficacy.